The Five Themes of Geography
Edited by Joe Naumann, UMSL
•What is geography?
•Geography is the study of the
earth and the ways people live and
work
• Comes from the Greek word
geographia “description of the earth”
What are the 5 themes?
• The five themes are what geographers
examine when learning about a
destination.
• Location
• Place
• Movement
• Human-Environment Interaction
• Region
Where are we?
• LOCATION answers this question in
geography.
• There are two types of LOCATION.
• Absolute Location
• Relative Location
Location
• Absolute Location:
• The exact location of
a country.
• This location can
never move or
change.
• Uses latitude &
longitude
• Can be an address
including the zip
code
Location
• Relative Location
• The location of a
place in relation to
another geographic
feature.
• Where is Lake Mead
in relation to Las
Vegas?
What is it like?
• PLACE is what is described by people
when they return from a destination.
• What do you imagine when you think
of:
• China
• Russia
• France
• India
Place
• When looking at a place we need to
examine two kinds of characteristics.
• Physical Characteristics
• Human Characteristics
Place
• Physical Characteristics:
• Describes the land forms, vegetation, and
climate of a location.
• Las Vegas
• Valley-land surrounded by mountains & hills.
• Shrubs and cactus
• Dry, hot desert
• Miami, Florida
• Lowlands, swamps, and beaches
• Tropical flora and fauna
• Humid and hot
Place
• Human Characteristics:
• Examines the humans of the area.
• How many people live, work, and visit a place?
• What are their languages, customs, and
beliefs?
• How does their economy work?
• What type of government do they have & how
does it work?
Human Characteristics of USA
• Commonalities
• Languages?
• Religions?
• Economy?
• Government?
• Popular Locations?
Human Characteristics of USA
• Common languages: English & Spanish
• Religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
and many other religions.
• Economy: Mixed market
• Government: Democratic federal
republic
• Popular Locations: Disney World, NYC,
Las Vegas, LA, and Washington, D.C.
Human-Environment Interaction
• How do humans and the environment
affect each other?
• Alteration: we change the environment &
sometimes Mother Nature changes it back.
• Panama Canal
• Levies on floodplains (Earth City)
• Adaptation: when we cannot change the
environment, we have to adjust to it.
• Floods in Mid-west
• Hurricane Andrew & Katrina
• California mudslides
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Mudslide
H.E.I - Continued
• There are three (3) key concepts to HEI.
• Humans adapt on the environment
• Mississippi River for transportation & water.
• Wearing clothes that are suitable for the weather.
• Humans alter the environment
• Heating & cooling buildings for comfort
• Build pools which increase humidity levels
• Humans depend on the environment
• Humans use the plants and animals as food and
as raw materials
• Humans extract minerals from the earth’s crust to
use as raw materials for making products
H.E.I. - Continued
• Environment is not
just nature, but it is
also a feeling!
• What is the
environment of a big
city with Los Angeles
or New York City?
Movement: the transfer of
material and non-material entities
from one location to another.
• Our world has been shaped
by the movement of:
1. Material entities
• People, resources, and Goods
2. Non-material entities
• Mass Communication & energy
• We live in a global
community and economy
that depends on huge
amounts of movement.
Movement-Continued
• Humans occupy
places unevenly on
Earth due to the
environment.
• We interact through
Movement: travel,
trade, and
information.
Regions
• Basic unit of study
in geography.
• Display a unity in
terms of a common
characteristic.
• Government
• Language
• Landforms
Regions-Continued
• There are three types of regions
• Formal
• Functional
• Vernacular
Formal Regions
• Defined by
governmental or
administrative
boundaries.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
States
Countries
Continents
Landforms
Cultures
Languages
Religions, etc.
Functional Regions
• Defined by a
function.
• Airline Service Area
• Newspaper Areas
• If the function
ceases, the region
no longer exists.
Vernacular Regions
• Loosely defined by
people’s perception.
•
•
•
•
•
The
The
The
The
The
U.S. South
U.S. Midwest
Middle East
U.S. Northeast
U.S. Bible Belt